From: Tim X <timx@...>
Date: 2007-04-16T17:35:05+09:00
Subject: Re: Computer Science Math - For the Uninitiated

Ewald Cress <ewaldcress@rocketmail.com> writes:

> Don,
>
> I know this doesn't directly anwer your question (and
> in fact takes the topic further and further away from
> Ruby), but a great book on algorithms to have on hand
> is Robert Sedgewick's. Its two volumes have been
> issued in both C and C++ versions, with rather "geeky"
> (clean but non-reader-friendly) code examples, but the
> graphical illustrations of searching and sorting
> algorithms in the first book are well worth the price
> of admission. In fact, if memory serves, those
> illustrations have received high praise from Edward
> Tufte, who is quite a stickler when it comes to
> information representation.
>

Of course - I knew there was another author I wanted to mention, but for the
life of me, couldn't remember his name. I would agree his stuff is good. 

I would also say not to worry too much about the fact his first edition was
was based on Pascal. To some extent, the language is less important than the
concepts. Knuth's Art of Programming books used an abstract machine that is even
at a lower level than Pascal. It could be argued that having a book that used a
language you were not using or not familiar with may be beneficial as it would
remove the temptation to just 'cut and paste' rather than working towards
understanding. 

The other nice thing about getting a book on algorithms that uses a language
like pascal is that apart from Pascal being a fairly simple language to follow,
your going to pick up the book for a lot less than a 'modern' book based on
Java, Ruby or Python (many of which are written by people who I suspect had
Sedgwick, Wirth and Knuth sitting next to them for reference!). 

The key, find an Author with a style you like - that is the No. 1 priority. If
you can find such an author and they have a book that uses Ruby, well your very
lucky. But don't restrict yourself to only books on algorithms that use the
language you are working in because you are likely to miss the insight from
some really gifted communicators. 

Tim

-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au